


Bright Blue Eyes

by Starrbar



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Tags May Change, They/Them Pronouns for The Vessels (Hollow Knight)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28013994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starrbar/pseuds/Starrbar
Summary: Broken Vessel wakes up, which is a surprise in itself.  Now they're in a strange new place, trying to communicate with the grumpy bug that saved them.
Relationships: Broken Vessel | Lost Kin & Relic Seeker Lemm
Comments: 7
Kudos: 44





	Bright Blue Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> I... might continue this?
> 
> Honestly I just wanted to write about Broken Vessel and Lemm ended up being my convenient means of doing so. :B

The world had been dark for a short time. Though the Vessel in the Ancient Basin had been a corpse for much longer, they hadn't had the chance to be empty for very long. A bright, imposing light had burned in their head for years, needling them, demanding things of them, never letting them truly rest.

Their last battle had ended that. It had broken... something. The aggressive light in their head left them and their thoughts ceased.

Without a means of holding a consciousness, there was no perception of time passing. It was like flipping a switch. One moment, they had just been struck down, their consciousness draining from their head, and in the next moment, there was a new light. While the previous had been hot and angry, this one was cool and protective, if a bit jittery. Their mind filled once again, allowing them to open bright blue eyes and see—!

A new place.

No longer trapped in the large tomb they had spent so many years, they now lay on a soft cushion of moss in a small, ornate room that almost seemed to have a pink glow to it. They felt a pang of fear as they quickly realized they were in an unfamiliar place.

In front of them was a large desk that looked like someone had spilled liquid void on it and neglected to clean it up. There was a symbol attached to the front of it—a segmented oval. Behind the desk, a confusing cluster of shiny items and old relics sat piled endlessly on top of each other on cluttered shelves. To the right of the desk was a tall window, where many tiny somethings touched down from the sky and slid down the outside, making little tapping sounds as they landed.

It was quiet, but a different type of quiet from the Ancient Basin. Down there, things scritched against the floor or hid away, shaking and coughing, in holes. In here, there wasn't a single sign of life, nor any noises in the background, aside from the window taps.

Broken Vessel—that was what they were, and thus the only thing they ever thought to refer to themselves as—found themselves curling up tight and turning their head to scan the room more intently. Upon doing so, they noticed the lack of a nail by their side. They quickly jumped to their feet, gaining a bit of height, and looked around the room again.

The questions in their head began to alarm them. Who had found them and why had they brought them here? Where was here? Where had these wonderful blue seeds come from, and would they stay? Was anyone even coming back to this purple room? What were the window tappers??

"Oh, you're awake," said a soft, slightly gravelly voice.

Broken Vessel jumped straight into the air and stumbled back, losing balance and crashing into the nearby side table. A loud clatter from the impact startled them, but they weren't done. Still moving, they stared at the first bug they had seen in so long as they scrambled back to their feet. They shifted across the room and started to maneuver themselves behind the desk, which was only a few inches shorter than their eye level.

"Hey! Get out of there!" the other bug snapped, taking a few steps towards the Vessel and clearly glaring. "That's my stock! Go on!"

He waved his little arms at them and got behind his desk, the latter prompting the Vessel to change course and rush back to the moss cushion.

"Hmph! Well, _you're_ a jumpy one," the strange bug grumbled as he sat back down at his desk. "I suppose it isn't entirely unwarranted. You obviously met a pretty nasty demise down below."

Up until now, the Vessel had pushed down the memories of that particular event, but hearing it acknowledged out loud prompted a momentary sense of alarm. They reached up, finally feeling for what could be filling their head this time. Their hands met a springy blob that didn't seem to have any nerves connected to them. Smaller lumps inside the blob moved against their palm, startling them, and they yanked their hands back down. They then started poking into their eye sockets, where they felt a similar texture, and one of the smaller lumps squirming against their fingers. It was the same! It was just like the invaders from the Basin, crawling into their head and building a nest there. Only this time, they weren't screeching orders from Her. This time, the beings seemed docile... even kind.

"I'm almost surprised that worked, honestly," the shopkeeper continued, earning a stare from the Vessel. "I read about a supposed zombie corpse in the Ancient Basin, taken over by these little scuttling 'infection seeds.' Never heard of those until I read that journal, but they looked so much like Lifeseeds. So...? I got curious."

Broken Vessel reached back up towards the blob on their head, pointing to it with one finger. Their other hand came back up to hook into their eye sockets, lazily holding on and letting the Lifeseeds inside brush up against their fingers. They gave a nod, and put their hands down again.

"Now you're here. And alive. You're welcome," the other bug finished.

The two of them sat in their respective spots for several moments, the pitter-patter of the stuff from the sky providing the only ambience. The shopkeeper grabbed something—a blue tablet—from one of the shelves behind him and began to look through it, keeping his guest in his peripheral vision and glancing up frequently.

The Vessel had managed to calm down, and was now turning their head in every direction to get a better look at the room. Not only were relics piled upon each other behind the desk, but across the back wall as well. There were several plaques higher up on the wall, most of them written in a language they had never seen. However, a picture frame containing a messy painting of the shopkeeper sported a small label that they could sound out in their head. _"Lemm."_

It was the only word they could read in this room, and the only indication they could find to tell them who this stranger was.

They tilted their head to the side, pondering the situation they found themselves in. The idea of a bug from outside the Abyss venturing down from wherever they lived their peaceful life and going through the trouble of slashing through the hostile bugs in the Basin to bring their lifeless husk back up with them....

And somehow, such a bug was not a strong warrior or an expert explorer, but a humble shopkeeper named Lemm.

They brought their hand up to their chin and tilted their head more deliberately, staring into the shopkeeper's eyes. A very clearly questioning gesture, in their opinion.

"Looks like you're done flailing around my shop, then," he observed, closing the journal he was holding and pushing it to the side. "Good." There was another pause as he looked over his new guest. "Now you can show me proper gratitude for saving you."

At that, the Vessel squinted their large eye sockets and glared at him. He still hadn't answered their question, and now he was asking for payment? What did he think they even had to offer him?

They crossed their arms and continued to stare at the other bug, waiting for him to explain what he just said or say something more logical.

Instead, he scoffed. "What? Is it too much to ask for a 'thank you?'"

They sat there, contemplating how exactly to respond. They _were_ thankful, his demanding tone aside. But he didn't seem very receptive to their indications thus far. They didn't _have_ to make their thoughts so blatantly obvious with these jerky movements and exaggerated expressions, but despite their extra effort, he still ignored them.

They shifted in their spot, wondering if perhaps an even more extreme gesture was needed. The thought of invading the space of someone they barely knew wasn't very appealing to them, but it was the next logical step up from the Vessel equivalent of flailing their arms about and screaming their innermost feelings.

So, with a silent huff, tilting their head down in concession, they got up from their cushion—their one place of safety in possibly forever—and approached Lemm's desk. They were short, but not too short to lift their arms over the top of the desk and reach out towards him. If they were to invite a stranger into their personal space, it might as well be the one that saved them.

Another scoff escaped the other bug, but one that held a bit more amusement than before. "Are you asking to be picked up?"

Broken Vessel felt a twinge of frustration at the shopkeeper's misreading of their gesture. This was getting ridiculous.

They smacked their hands against the top of the desk to show that they were not amused with his stupidity, and then pulled them back down. As they began to walk around the desk for the second time, Lemm opened his mouth to protest and was rendered silent once he felt the soft embrace of their little arms wrapping around his torso and barely even reaching his back.

Their head was turned to the side, their eye sockets locked in a glare, as they mentally grumbled about the absurd situation.

They moved to pull away mere seconds after hugging him, but they were surprised to feel slender hands on the back of their head, matching their embrace.

"How cute," Lemm commented as they finally looked up at him. "I guess this is the closest thing I can hope for. You aren't much of a talker, are you?"

Broken Vessel huffed, finally pulling away and beginning to exit the semi-forbidden space behind Lemm's desk. As thankful as they were to be alive, this bug was providing quite annoying company.

"Hold on, now," Lemm called to them as they walked towards the door—the One Door they had made note of when they awoke. The Vessel imitated a sigh to answer him, before he continued anyway. "Look, call me selfish—saving people is its own reward, blah blah blah—but I didn't personally venture all the way down to that wasteland through the _gutters_ to have you just walk out before I can learn about you."

The Vessel hesitated, stopping just a few feet from the doorway. They turned their body halfway towards him and glanced in his direction, silent and waiting for him to explain further. It wasn't like they had a diary to share or diagrams of their anatomy. They made sure to make this sentiment clear with a tilt of their head, a soft squint of their eye sockets, and placing their hands on their hips.

"You are a reanimated corpse!" continued Lemm. "Quite an enigma, I would say. And besides that, I wouldn't recommend walking out into this city alone. The citizens here haven't exactly been civilized in a while."

The Vessel continued to stare back at him, slowly processing his warning. This was the first time they had truly met _anyone_ civilized other than their kin in the Abyss. Did he think this was a revelation?

Still... they weren't exactly a patient fighter, and that had pretty quickly gotten them killed once.

With a sigh, they turned back around and then pointed towards their backside. They moved their arm back and forth to indicate that they were, in fact, pointing to that area.

"Huh? What are you—oh." Lemm, with recognition in his voice, turned back to one of the many crowded shelves and bent down, the desk obscuring most of his body for a moment. When he stood up, he held an old, cracked nail, and Broken Vessel jumped with joy. _Finally,_ he had understood what they were saying! There was no way he couldn't, if he had taken their nail off their back in the first place.

They rushed back over to the desk and reached over to snatch the nail back rather than waiting for him to give it to them. It was their nail, after all. They didn't need to ask for it.

"Gah—hey! Impatient runt.." Lemm grumbled as Broken Vessel took their nail back and began to examine it. There didn't seem to be any new cracks in the rusty metal, but what did they know? They had just been dead, after all.

They began to swing their nail about the room experimentally, testing the way it felt to wield. It felt different than having their arms controlled by the Light. They had clear thoughts and they _chose_ to swing their nail.

"Feeling more confident now?" Lemm asked, a slight chuckle in his voice as Broken Vessel continued testing the movement of their arms.

_BUMP!_

They nearly jumped out of their cloak when they heard the loud smack, paired with a sudden dark shape in their peripheral vision. Turning their head towards the window and gripping the handle of their nail tightly, they were met with the sight of a large, horned bug, flying above them with small wings on their back and holding a long nail. The dark blue of their shell didn't stand out against the city behind them, but their bright, orange eyes struck a new wave of fear into the Vessel.

Turning fully towards the window, heart pounding, they raised their nail—

"Now now, there's no need for that," Lemm spoke up. "They can't get in here. I would know."

Broken Vessel's chest rose and fell rapidly as they glanced back at the shopkeeper, their eyes wide with alarm. It took them quite a few seconds to let his words sink in. He knew this place, and he wasn't afraid. If he said it was safe, then it was safe.

Just as they began to lower their nail, the winged sentry bumped against the window a second time, earning another startled jump from the Vessel, before the infected creature shook their head and flew away.

Just like that, they were gone.

Broken Vessel backed away from the window and sheathed their nail through their cloak behind them. So much for confidence. Suddenly, the idea of going out there was less inviting, even with their deadly weapon on hand. They had no goals, at this point. All they had ever known was that there was _something_ waiting for them if they escaped the Abyss. But now they were… somewhere, and everything still felt scary.

But they weren't staying here forever.

They turned towards the doorway for the second time and began eagerly walking towards it, one hand loosely by their side so they could quickly grab their nail if needed.

"Hey."

They turned back to Lemm once more, huffing impatiently.

"If you go out there, you _will_ have to fight. I can't stop you from leaving, but I must make a request." He paused, scanning over their expression before continuing. "If you find yourself overwhelmed by the world, don't find some isolated corner of the city to die in." He glanced outside, at the tall statue of the Hollow Knight, and the wobbling infected citizens standing mindlessly around it. "Just come back. I have more Lifeseeds, should you need them."

Broken Vessel put one of their hands up to their chin, outwardly acknowledging his request. After a few moments, they nodded—again, in an exaggerated fashion, since this bug obviously had trouble deciphering basic body language.

And with that, they left.


End file.
